Deciding on the best beginner electric guitar for you?

It's a great moment - you've decided to find an electric guitar and get serious about learning.

Think of the people before you that made that same decision, people like John Lennon, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix.

They made history - maybe you will too.

There are lots of great looking electric guitars out there.

They are not all as great sounding as they look - here's some of the things that I found that make a great electric guitar.

To choose your best beginner electric guitar make sure it has the following:

Solid wood body - quality wood produces quality sound production and sustain. Choices are usually Swamp ash, which is known for its twang, mahogany which is known for crunch, Alder which is good for modern Rock, poplar which has a good sustain and tone to it.

Good quality pickups - Good quality signal to the amplifier. Pickups are easily replaced later for better sound.Lots of choices here. I recommend taking a look and listen to Rockfield pickups. I have them in my Les Paul. They make me smile :)

A strong stable neck with properly dressed frets. - This prevents a myriad of problems and expensive repairs caused by warped necks and bad fret jobs.

Properly dressed frets that are even, no sharp ends, no buzzing due to uneven frets. The best beginner electric guitar will have proper attention to finishing the frets - prevent cut fingers and frustration with buzzing. This is very important - .important fret jobs are expensive even on an inexpensive guitar.

Good quality tuners - The best beginner electric guitar is easy to tune and reduces the frustration a beginner has with tuning. Tuners should have smooth accurate action and hold solid. Tuner replacement can be a major hassle if replacements are hard to locate. Good tuners can be a $150 - $200 replacement job by a good tech. It's not that hard to do yourself if you know which tuners to buy.

Good quality electronics and shielding - prevents crackling noises and hum. Try the guitar out around florescent lighting or an old computer monitor to see if it hums badly.

Simple tremolo system - Floyd rose tremolos make changing strings overly complicated for a beginner,and in my opinion would not make a good choice for the best beginner electric guitar unless you want your guitar tech to do it, but that can run about $30 or so. Floyd Rose trems can be a major cool factor though.

A manufacturers warranty - Peace of mind in case of future problems identified later. Used guitars will usually not have this.

Covered by a guarantee of satisfaction or money back.

Best Beginner Electric Guitar - Suggestions

Here're some great choices in a beginner electric guitar.

Gibson Les Paul Melody Maker

- Designed as a student model and it is good at that. A student can concentrate on learning to play the guitar, instead of playing the guitar.

It is not a guitar for high gain, but it does alright.

A very simple guitar, nothing much to mess with except learning.

Lightweight, quality wood. Great sound. Good for blues, and rock. Has a nice snarl. One single coil pickup, this thing is simplicity itself.

Best yet, it's a Gibson - very respected guitar company that helped usher in a whole new era of modern music.

Gibson Melody Maker - Right now this guitar is selling for around $400.

The Gibson Melody maker was the first electric guitar that was owned byBilly Gibbons of ZZ Top. He teamed it up with a Fender Champ Tube amp and this combination was the start of a significant portion of Rock and Roll history.

This turned out to be perfect for Billy Gibbons to start on and he's no slouch. Put it through a decent electric guitar amp and its a dream.

Bear in mind, this is a simple guitar. People like versatility but this one is so simple, you'll need pedals to make it do anything more sophisticated.

Epiphone Les Paul standard

- Starting at around $450 for a standard. Around $300 for a studio with fewer frills.

These are very versatile guitars that respond well to the player.

This is a Rock and Roll guitar that is good for a variety of styles. Blues, Jazz and Heavy Rock. Very affordable for a Les Paul with a lifetime limited warranty if you buy it new.

These are good the way they are for learning to play the guitar and can be hot rodded with different pickups later.

Epiphone G-400

- Coming in at about $350. Lightweight and easy to handle for the beginner learning to play guitar. This is a no compromise Rock and Roll guitar. Great sound from some pretty aggressive sounding humbuckers. This guitar has a set neck which adds sustain. It's light weight and looks really good.

Team this up with a good amp and this is a great choice in a best beginner electric guitar.

Fender Standard Stratocaster

- Another icon of Rock and Roll history. These start at around $400. This is a brighter sounding guitar than a Les Paul. These have proven to be the Best beginner electric guitar for quite a few people. I suggest the version with the humbucker pickup in the bridge position for versatility, which makes learning the guitar more interesting.

For just a little bit more than a standard Strat, the deluxe models add upgrades such as better sounding pickups so you might not feel the need to upgrade the pickups so soon.

Fender Stratocaster Deluxe Lonestar Strat is my weapon of choice in this line. Comes in an around $550. Money well invested for a person learning the guitar because of the quality, sound and ease of play.

Squire Vintage Modified or Squire Custom Guitars

- Right now they are around $300. Ok here's the deal on these. These are the most deluxe models of the Squire line. They run about $100 more than a regular Squire.

The extra hundred dollars will get you a much better sounding guitar with pretty good pickups, some of them Duncan designed. Designed by Seymour Duncan and built outside the USA.

These are great looking guitars that are a good starter guitars.

I did notice the fret ends were a little sharp. Choose carefully.

Dean ML XM - This is a guitar that is very unconventional in its looks. It's important for a guitar to be comfortable while you are sitting down while learning and I did not have a problem with this guitar sitting down.

Mainly associated with harder rock styles and metal, I had fun playing this guitar. It's very comfortable to play, the pickups sounded really good for the price and the neck was very easy to get around. I believe this would make one of the best beginner electric guitar choices out there.

Ibanez GRX20 - - Ibanez produces some very impressive solid body electric guitars. This guitar is right around $150 right now as I write this. They are easy to play, sound good and would be a great choice in a lower priced beginner guitar. Ibanez GRG170DX - - For about $100 more- great best beginner electric guitar choice.guitars are pretty good in the lower price ranges. They have decent pickups that sound good through a decent amplifier (more about that later)

That's it for my suggestions on some of the best beginner guitar choices out there.

These guitar were chosen for their quality and low price range. If money is not a issue and you are totally committed to stick with the guitar the higher end guitars from these same manufacturers would be a excellent choice.

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